Wagon site

translated from and roughly in sync with 📝 SquatCamp 2019

🌐 Berlin, N/A
contact Jon, jon@allmende.io +49 175 321 15 25
📆 14. - 16. Mai

Conditions

  • Ecobytes.net is a registered not-for-profit association and works for a self-determined civil society. There are a few routers left from a Demokratie Jetzt! project in Witzenhausen. Those were installed at AWO, who replaced them with a commercial alternative.
  • There is a wagon site in east Berlin, where few users are receiving Internet access via LTE.
  • Kaya and Philipp from Freifunk Berlin have been there and concluded that no connection to the Berlinbackbone mesh is possible.
  • There is dtn.is on May 17 and 18 and some people might stick around for 📝 Squatconf events.

Needs

  • There is no sufficient WiFi on site which connects all wagons with equal connectivity. Freifunk could help (1) to provide basic access and (2) anonymise online activity.
  • Ecobytes needs a place for the yearly Ecobytes :memo: Membership assembly 2019 (#105) · ecobytes / community, which could happen May 18 from 16:00 - 18:00 with barbecue afterwards.

Proposal : How can we take care?

  • How many routers are available, and where can they be installed?

Conduct : Who is doing what and when?

  • approaching their plenary 18.03.
  • write down requirements analysis and preplanning 07.04. SquatCamp 2019 - HackMD
  • plenary confirms WE16
  • write to OSM Berlin 20.04.
  • keep contact to the people to keep the place informed
  • request budget in Ecobytes
  • 02./03.05. Preexperimentation with AWO routers? electricity, location of upstreams and antenna directions
  • Installation W20 14. - 16.05.

From the issue Deployment locations unknown (#1) · Issues · freifunk / witzenhausen · GitLab we learn that there might be some devices left from a previous installation, that could possibly be redeemed on Monday, 29.04.2019.

Calculation

wagon site

  • German Telekom
    • 700 € once?
    • ? monthly, which service?
  • LTE unlimited
    • 80 € per month
    • LTE router are usually forbidden in Terms of Use
  • cooperation with neighbours?

Ecobytes, excl. work time

ggf. buying of routers?

ca. 300 - 500 € ?

Material

  • network cable UV light proof
  • Crimp
  • RJ45 plugs
  • PoE adaptors
  • power supplies
  • plastic boxes
  • outdoor cases
  • ...

technical setup

The site is a curved rectangle of ca. 30m x 200m and has a big building and a meeting site next to the centre. The wagons are aligned in loose lines that extend throughout the site. There are few trees or bushes, since it is a temporary reuse of a former industrial site with beton soil.

Good placement of routers and antennas has to be found in trial and error. Important sufficient conditions are electricity, sun exposure and eventual antenna locations on buildings, constructions or wagons. Some wagons may be attached to the LAN via a cable, if impossible to reach by the local spectrum. 2,4 GHz may be full, why 5GHz is preferable. Power supplies and PoE adaptors are connected in interior or other dry places.

Please feel free to edit this issue and update it with current developments.

Edited by Jon Richter